Benefield Testimony Continues

Benefield Testimony Continues

Prosecutors play the defendant's 911 call and recorded interviews with police in the trial of a Wichita Falls man charged in the February 2012 death of his four-month-old son.

Prosecutors play the defendant's 911 call and recorded interviews with police in the trial of a Wichita Falls man charged in the February 2012 death of his four-month-old son.

The defendant and his family were visibly upset when prosecutors played that 911 call for jurors. During that call, the defendant repeatedly begged for his unresponsive son to wake up.

Brent Benefield is charged with injury to a child causing death and assault causing bodily injury to a family members for alleged continuous violence against his wife. Benefield pleaded not guilty to those charges.

After police responded to Benefield 911 call that his infant child was unresponsive at his home in the 4300 block of McNiel, the victim was taken by ambulance to the hospital. That's where police first interviewed Benefield and prosecutors played that interview Thursday.

In that interview, Benefield details fights with his wife including one as to why she wasn't taking her prescribed postpartum depression medication and another about why she was yelling at the infant to shut up.

Benefield referred to his child as "it" at one point in the interview and a WFPD detective testified that bothered him because it suggests Benefield's detachment from the child. That detective also testified he was contacted by a nurse from Cook Children's Hospital in Fort Worth, where the infant was transported for treatment, who told him of what he said were concerning injuries to the child. So WFPD detectives went to Cook Children's Hospital where they again interviewed Benefield.

That recorded interview was played Thursday as well. In that interview, Benefield said doctors told him the infant may have had a stroke or seizure and a neurologist told him he thought the baby had been shaken. Benefield said he and his wife asked each other if they had shaken the baby and they both denied doing so.

Testimony continues Thursday afternoon.

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